Zizkov Television Tower

Praguers have been arguing about this tower since it was built in the 1980s, and three decades later, they still haven't reached a consensus. The Zizkov Television Tower is 216 meters of Brutalist reinforced concrete that shoots up from a residential neighborhood like a rocket that forgot to launch. When it was completed in 1992, it was instantly voted one of the ugliest buildings in the world by multiple publications. Locals were furious. Some people are still furious.

The tower was designed by architect Vaclav Aulicky and engineer Jiri Kozak, and it was built between 1985 and 1992 — straddling the fall of communism, which means construction started under one political system and finished under another. A persistent urban legend claims the Soviets used the tower for signal jamming against Radio Free Europe, though this has never been officially confirmed.

Then David Cerny got involved. In 2000, the provocative Czech sculptor attached ten giant fiberglass babies to the tower's exterior as a temporary art installation for Prague's European Capital of Culture celebrations. The babies are 3.5 meters long, faceless — their features replaced by barcodes — and they appear to be crawling up and down the tower like enormous insects. The public loved them so much they became permanent in 2001, and suddenly the ugliest building in Prague became one of its most photographed.

The observation deck at 93 meters offers a 360-degree view of Prague that's arguably better than the one from Prague Castle, since from up here you can actually see Prague Castle. There's also a one-room luxury hotel suite at 70 meters, if you want to sleep inside Prague's most controversial building.